HP Envy 13-d010nr Review of a High End affordable laptop

If you love the design of the MacBook Air lineup but don't have the budget to go in that direction or actually need to go down the Windows route to get the job done then HP has the perfect fit for you in the shape of the HP ENVY 13-d010nr.

But HP's new laptop has quite a few upgrades when compared to the MacBook Air lineup. Aside from its more affordable price point, this new model also boosts quite a spectacular QuadHD resolution which is even better than Apple's MacBook Pro lineup. There's also a significant increase in RAM, 8 GB to be precise. If you wanna know more here's our full review of the HP Envy 13-d010nr.

HP ENVY 13-d010nr Detailed Review

Spectacular display on a lightweight design

If you thought a Full HD display on a laptop was the next boundary you haven't seen nothing. The HP ENVY 13-d010nr comes equipped with a 13.3 inch QHD IPS display with WLED-Backlit technology. It's important to note that this is not a touchscreen, something which quite honestly doesn't really bother us because of the lack of practical aplications this technology has proven to have.

To place the display in numbers you've got a full on resolution of 3200 by 1800 pixels. That's a hell of a lot of pixels on such a small form factor that makes for precise viewing and an excellent multimedia laptop for both video editing and video viewing. Finally a laptop where you can watch all those 2K videos that phones are starting to take on.

In terms of design, the HP 13-d010nr has a very solid industrial build with an aluminium body that proves itself to be quite sturdy. Much better than most of its counterparts. The quality build also serves a technical purpose that goes beyond the aesthetics which is to deliver a better cooling technology which makes even the most demanding tasks run smoothly without the overheating issues typical to a cheaper build.

Weight and size is ridiculously portable, with a weight of just 3 pounds and a very thin body that's half an inch. Technically speaking, this is roughly half the thickness present in most consumer laptops which typically occupy an inch or so.

High End performance with loads of RAM

Performance on the HP ENVY 13-d010nr is directed by an Intel Core i5-6200U processor. This is a Skylake processor that we've seen all around the market thanks to its great efficiency in power consumption and very capable design to handle all sorts of tasks.

When we tackle the numbers we can see that it's a dual core processor with a 2.3 GHz base frequency that jumps to 2.8 GHz when Turboboost is activated. It's built on a 14nm technology with a 64 bit architecture and sports 3 MB of Intel's smart cache technology.

All in all, this is your go-to CPU for a great performing laptop. Whether you want to edit videos, run spreadsheets, skype at a Full HD resolution, or cook up the next app to hit the App Store, this is an excellent choice.

Couple that with 8 GB of DD3L SDRAM and you've got yourself a multitasking powerhouse capable of doing all the things listed above at once. Again, this is one of its crucial differences when compared to a 13 inch MacBook Air which comes with 4 GB of RAM.

Sorry, not a gaming laptop

HP had to draw the line somewhere and as we see in our HP ENVY 13-d010nr review they chose to do that over at the graphics chip department. To the point, this model comes equipped with an integrated Intel HD Graphics 520 GPU.

Maybe you can get away with some light gaming but anything that's very demanding in the graphical department will be an obnoxious play because you won't be able to get a decent frame rate at a decent display setting.

Up to 7 hours of battery life and an excellent onboard storage

While battery life isn't up to par with some more advanced models like the Dell XPS line that can deliver up to 12 hours of battery life, the 7 hour benchmark provided by HP thanks to its 3 cell battery isn't bad either and delivers an essentially portable device that doesn't have you worrying constantly about battery life.

Storage is also great, not because there's a lot of it but because this model strikes a home run with 128 GB of SSD storage. Personally, I can make due with that capacity, especially through the help of very affordable external drives. When it comes down to storage capacity versus storage speed, i'll always pick a speedy performance. But of course, that's a personal choice that each user needs to make on his own.

No DVD tray and No ethernet port

As is common amongst most 13 inch models, the HP envy 13-d010nr does not include either a DVD reader nor an ethernet port. On the other hand it does feature 3 USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI port, SD card reader as well as an audio combo.

We would also point out the presence of high speed WiFi connectivity in the form of the WiFi ac standard, Bluetooth 4.0, a high quality webcam as well as a set of Bang & Olufsen Speakers, which are typical across practically all HP laptops at this point. Honestly, sound quality is good but as we all know, good means good for a laptop.

Wrapping things up

In our closing statements, after reviewing the HP Envy 13-d010nr we would argue that this is one of the best laptops in the market at its current price point. The processor is one of the best processors in the market, the display is just breathtaking for watching movies and the SSD storage means fast access to your apps, files as well as an optimal boot up/ boot down time.

As we said in the beginning, if you've been eyeing the MacBook Air lineup but was turned off because of the lack of Windows then this is an excellent choice at an even more competitive price point with an even better display. Overall, a winner on all fronts.

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